Costco unexpectedly benefits from popular father-son social media personalities

Have you heard of the “Costco Guys”? No, this title doesn’t refer to Costco’s hard-working employees. A Florida father-son duo, who go by A.J. and Big Justice, have adopted the moniker.

The pair’s social media fame has skyrocketed throughout 2024. In March, A.J. and Big Justice dropped a TikTok video that sparked the Costco Guys nickname. In the video, they interact with Costco foods and products, saying things like “We’re Costco guys, of course we go shopping while eating a chicken bake…We’re Costco guys, of course we have to try out the furniture.” By the end of October, this video had amassed more than 57.2 million views.

A.J. and Big Justice’s content increasingly gained fame, as they rated items on a BOOM Meter. Items are either good, “BOOM!” or bad, “DOOM!”. In July, the pair launched a single that incorporated popular phrases from their TikToks, called “We Bring the Boom.” On October 19th, the song was parodied on Saturday Night Live. Later that month, the two made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Their TikTok page has amassed more than 2.2 million followers.

Using data from QuestBrand by The Harris Poll, we explored how the Costco Guys’ meteoric rise in fame impacted the Costco brand. The graph below tracks Costco’s positive brand Quality score among active TikTok users and the general population of US adults. Quality is a component of brand equity that quantifies a brand’s perceived quality.

Throughout spring and summer as the Costco Guys’ fame accelerated on social media, we see that Costco’s positive Quality score rose among active TikTok users. Costco’s quality score was significantly higher among active TikTok users than the general population of adults, suggesting that these quirky videos have positively influenced how social media users think about the Costco brand.

This situation illustrates just how much influence (even silly) social media posts can have on overall brand health.